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<br />water supply problems due to rapid growth. Casper has purchased <br />7,000 acre-feet of water from the Kendrick Project to supplement their <br />municipal supplies. Casper estimates this water, plus their current <br />suppl ies, wi 11 meet their requirements to year 2000. Cheyenne is <br />pursuing its Stage I! water system expansion which would be capable of <br />serving its needs to year 2010. <br /> <br />Popu 1 ati on in Nebraska's port i on of the study area is proj ected to <br />increase by 41,483 to year 2020. Municipal water needs for this <br />popul at ion is 8,364 acre-feet. None of the 1 arger commun it i es in the <br />Nebraska port ion are presently experiencing major problems with water <br />supplies. All Nebraska communities depend on ground water resources for <br />their municipal, industrial, and domestic water supplies. <br /> <br />Opportunities exist in the South Platte and North Platte portions of the <br />river basin to develop surface water to meet the expected future demands <br />for M&! water for the Denver metropo 1 i tan area, the Co 1 orado Front <br />Range, and the cities of Cheyenne and Casper in Wyoming. Some water <br />exchanges within the river system might be required to facil itate the <br />development and use of available surface water where it is needed. <br /> <br />Other opportunities exist to supply the future demands for M&! water <br />uses. Some potential exists for obtaining water from the western slope <br />of Colorado for use in the Denver metropol itan area. Ground-water <br />resources are expected to meet demands of M&I use in the Nebraska <br />portion of the study area. Conversion of agricultural water use to M&! <br />use is another opportunity to meet these demands. <br /> <br />Some M&! water supply problems are expected to occur as ground- <br />water is depleted. Some communities in Nebraska may experience a <br />decline in ground-water supplies for M&! use as a result of ground-water <br />depletions. Rural farm and nonfarm residents in Nebraska who rely on <br />shallow ground-water aquifers for their domestic water needs are <br />affected by 1 and use and agricultural practices which degrade the water <br />quality. These problems are not widespread in the basin. <br /> <br />Agriculture <br /> <br />The trend in United States coarse grain exports is a key factor in <br />ascertaining future agricultural production demands for the Upper <br />Platte River Basin. The demand for coarse grains is worldwide, not <br />just domestic. !n the early 1970's, high world demand resulted in <br />high prices and stimulated expansion of the United States. coarse grain <br />area, particularly corn. The United States increased its total level <br />of exports and increased its rel ative share of the world coarse grain <br />market. This export trend has continued as incomes have risen in Japan, <br />Western Europe, and middle-income developing countries; plus Soviet and <br />Eastern European policies are to increase meat consumption (which <br />requires coarse grains as input to livestock production). United States <br />exports of feed grains are depicted graphically and the actual levels of <br />exports shown in table 7. <br /> <br />32 <br />